MDCH public hearing on Proposal 1

The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) will be holding a public hearing on January 5 at 9:00 a.m. in Lansing. Please let me know at [masked] if you are interested and able to attend. It is particularly important that qualifying patients, doctors, and attorneys speak out at the hearing. If you are able to attend, please remember to be respectful and polite and to dress appropriately for a government hearing.

Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project. Please pass this message on to other supporters of Proposal 1 so we can ensure that the law is implemented faithfully.

Background: Draft medical marijuana rules need to be revised

On December 5, the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) issued draft rules for Michigan's new medical marijuana law, Proposal 1. The draft rules go much further than the department's role under Proposal 1 and in several areas conflict with it. The MDCH has a comment period, and based on the comments will consider revising the rules. We need your help to make sure they do.

Please take the time to write and submit a comment urging the MDCH to bring the rules in line with the law. Be sure to be respectful and polite in your letters, which are due by 5:00 p.m. on January 9.

Proposal 1 tasked the MDCH with issuing state registry ID cards to qualifying patients, which will protect them from arrest. It gave the MDCH authority to issue rules about processing applications, adding additional qualifying conditions, and setting fees. But these draft rules go much further and seek to rewrite new and unreasonable requirements into the voter-enacted law. Here are some of the provisions of the draft rules that conflict with Proposal 1 and need to be revised:

The draft rules would require patients and caregivers to submit inventory reports on their marijuana cultivation each year. The law does not require any such records, and the department does not have the authority to require them. Inventory reports would be self-incriminating since they would document violations of federal law.

The draft rules indicate that all marijuana must be kept in an enclosed locked facility, when the law only requires that marijuana plants be stored in an enclosed, locked facility. There is no similar restriction for potentially deadly medications like prescription morphine, oxycontin, or methamphetamine.

The draft rules provide for monitoring, inspections, and reporting by the department that is not provided for in the act.

The draft rules seek to define a "public place" where marijuana cannot be used to include anywhere "visible to the public." This could include a front porch or the inside of a patient's house, if the patient is near the window.

Click here for a longer list of draft rules that need revision:
http://www.mpp.org/as...